Object Description
Nineteenth century Black Forest mantel Cuckoo clock in a chalet style case surmounted by a finely carved bird with ivy cresting over a foliate clad exterior and surrounding carved fence.
Five inch dial with Roman numerals and carved bone hands.
Eight day double Fusee movement with wooden plates and fully articulated cuckoo bird striking and ‘cuckooing’ on the hour and half hour.
The movement is marked ‘Beha’ on both barrels, the movement plates and to the top of the rear of the case. C.1870.
Johann Baptist Beha was a noted clockmaker. Trained by his father, the master clockmaker Vincenz Beha (1784-1868) at Eisenbacher Zinken in the Black Forest region. Vincenz Beha devoted much of his time to inventing and making precision regulators and calendar clocks. His son Johann specialised in designing and making the finest quality Cuckoo clocks, some musical others with Quails as well as Cuckoo’s. He quickly gained a reputation as the ‘Master Cuckoo Clock Maker’. In 1861 at the International fair in Karlsruhe, Germany. He displayed over thirty different types of Cuckoo Clock! Johann Baptist Beha formed a partnership with Camerer, Kuss and company who became the sole importer of Beha Clocks.